


Case Two: Mal Bertha

by MelyndaR



Series: Auradon Social Services: Isle of the Lost Division [3]
Category: Descendants (Disney Movies)
Genre: Gen, Isle of the Lost (Disney) is a Terrible Place, United States of Auradon (Disney) Is Not Perfect
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-02
Updated: 2020-08-02
Packaged: 2021-03-06 05:01:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,998
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25667869
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MelyndaR/pseuds/MelyndaR
Summary: Mal watched it dawn on her boyfriend that there was a reason she and the other three VKs here were in such a hurry to bring over other VKs. He got it now that this wasn’t just a charitable thing to do… that they might just be trying to save lives.
Relationships: Beast & Belle & Ben & Evie & Mal (Disney: Descendants), Beast & Mal (Disney), Belle & Mal (Disney), Ben/Mal (Disney: Descendants), Evie & Mal (Disney)
Series: Auradon Social Services: Isle of the Lost Division [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1854097
Comments: 12
Kudos: 193





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I tried to make it clear enough in the writing, but this story actually happens at the same time as Carlos' story, while he's still getting to know the Radcliffes and sorting out how he feels about becoming a part of their family.

The day after first meeting Mrs. Anita Radcliffe, the Little London resident who had offered to find the VKs homes and families in Auradon, the fashion designer called Mal, saying, “Good afternoon, Lady Mal. Do you happen to have a moment to talk about what we all discussed yesterday?”

Mal looked down at her desk, cluttered with finals study work. _Given what her options were…_ she spun away from her desk. “Sure. Is there something I can help you with?”

“It’s about how I want to help you, actually,” Mrs. Radcliffe reminded her carefully.

Mal laughed, light and still a little unused to the idea. “Yeah, of course.”

“I know we discussed the fact that you’re very comfortable with King Adam and Queen Belle, and that you would prefer to remain in their home?”

“I would.”

“Then I believe I’ve found a simple enough way to integrate my idea with your wishes in that, as long as everyone involved agrees. To that end, do you think it would be possible for me to meet with you, the royal family, and Miss Grimhilde at some point this week?”

Mal inhaled, considering the logistics of getting five such very busy people at the same place at the same time. “Honestly? Doug, Dopey’s son, is the guy you want to answer that question. He has all the… royal family’s schedules, and he’ll be able to coordinate that for you. For us, I mean.”

“Ah, of course. How might one get in contact with Doug, in that case?”

Mal rattled off Doug’s number, a little too used to punting people off to him and Jane to sort out. They hung up, and, sure that it would be taken care of, Mal returned to studying and comforting herself with the thought of how close there were to summer vacation.

* * *

Working his own version of practical magic, Doug coordinated a meeting between the desired six people the following Monday.

Mal had to admit that in the time between Mrs. Radcliffe’s phone call and this meeting, her opinion of the lady had only grown. Carlos had come back from his first weekend with the Radcliffes a little bit in awe of them and having even made friends with a few of their dogs. Alone in their dorm room, Evie had even admitted that Carlos had told her that he’d told Mr. and Mrs. Radcliffe about some of Cruella’s… _well, it was abuse, it really, really was,_ Mal reminded herself, no matter how much she struggled to sometimes admit that regarding the villains she’d grown up around. Mr. and Mrs. Radcliffe had apparently taken those admissions from Carlos in perfect stride, and it only left Mal even more curious to see what Mrs. Radcliffe had on her mind this morning.

“Doug has informed me that I have ‘thirty minutes, not a second more, or you’ll be late to class,’” Ben declared, sliding into his chair at the table.

“Us, too,” Evie added, gesturing between herself and Mal as they sat.

“Then I’ll get right to the point – or at least one of my points,” Mrs. Radcliffe declared, and she produced a thin stack of papers from her briefcase. “Wardship.” She pushed the papers across the table to Adam and Belle, explaining, “I know, Lady Mal, that we’ve discussed you don’t want to be taken in by an unknown family, and for obvious reasons we don’t want his and her majesties to adopt you, so wardship is a variation of the same process without, well, frankly, all of the benefits for you. The state would view you as their official ward, so they can still help you make decisions from a legal perspective as needed, but they’re not required to acknowledge you as their daughter in any legal sense that would… make your relationship with the king difficult. It would give them a responsibility to make sure you’re looked after without, say, giving you any rights of inheritance. How does that sound to the three of you?”

King Adam, Mal had noticed, had promptly surrendered the papers to Queen Belle, who skimmed over them before she looked over at Mal, declaring, “I think this could work, could be a good compromise, and a good idea.”

“And like you told Carlos,” Evie pointed out. “If you’re willing to let it be, it’s a public good-faith movement in support of the ILD, by the former rulers, which is kind of a big deal for public opinion.”

“Correct,” Mrs. Radcliffe agreed.

“I’m okay with it if Belle is,” King Adam agreed.

To which the queen said again, “And I am.”

Mal was already nodding, but when Belle offered her the papers, she took them, only to look over them and be confronted with a mess of legal jargon that she struggled to understand.

“Mal,” Queen Belle said carefully, continuing when Mal looked at her, “I think it’s important for you to also understand that if we take this route,” she glanced at her husband for his support before saying, “Nothing has to change, if you don’t want it to. Like Evie pointed out, it’s a smart political movement to help sway public opinion, and you obviously know that, but if you don’t want anything to change privately, within our family, it doesn’t have to. Obviously, Adam and I would love to help you any way you’ll allow us to, but we would want to do that anyway, whether or not we sign a piece of paper. So, the only thing we have to decide is if we’re going to make our feelings on the matter official by signing papers.”

“In a move that would help the kids on the Isle,” Mal repeated, but she didn’t need the reassurance, or the extra reminder, not really. She knew these people, and she loved and trusted them. They were practically her in-laws already, they were never going to be her parents… but she thought she could be okay with them being… whatever signing these papers made them to her, as long as… “It won’t make my relationship to Ben illegal or difficult or frowned upon or anything, right?” she double-checked with Mrs. Radcliffe.

“Right,” Mrs. Radcliffe affirmed with a sharp nod.

Mal smiled across the table at Belle and Adam, agreeing, “Then let’s do it.”

“Perfect,” Belle said, returning her smile brightly as Ben squeezed Mal’s hand happily under the table.


	2. Chapter 2

“You said you had more than one point in coming here today?” Ben asked Mrs. Radcliffe.

“I do,” Mrs. Radcliffe glanced at a slip of paper she had on the table in front of her, checking something off with a pen, and Mal suddenly suspected that she’d taken actual notes for this meeting. _Because of course she had._ “It’s become something of a side-note to my thoughts by now, but last weekend, Carlos mentioned he doesn’t know who his father is.”

“A lot of us don’t,” Evie said.

“I suspected as much,” Mrs. Radcliffe admitted carefully. “So, I don’t suppose either of you girls have any idea who Carlos’ father might be?”

Evie shook her head, answering for Mal too as she said, “No.”

“Alright, and that’s fine.” Mrs. Radcliffe checked off something else on her list. “My thought here regarding the broader picture is that if we can determine paternity for the children coming into Auradon from the Isle, that effectively doubles our chances of finding a family member in Auradon who might be willing to take them in.”

“We do have DNA samples from all the villains, actually,” Ben said thoughtfully. “It wouldn’t be that difficult to run some sort of cross-referencing tests in the state labs, I’m sure, as long as we could get DNA samples from all the VKs.”

“That’s as simple as sending a team of techs over to gather cheek swabs, right?” Evie asked curiously.

Ben nodded.

“Wait,” King Ben requested. “Are we talking about doing this as VKs are chosen to come over to Auradon – and only to those select children – or are we talking about doing it to _all_ the VKs, and seeing if we come up with anything pertinent that might affect who we bring over in the first place?”

“That’s your decision, your majesties,” Mrs. Radcliffe deferred.

Quietly, Evie said, “I think you should do it, if possible, to all of them, and as quickly as possible.”

“Why?” Mal asked her.

“A couple of reasons,” Evie admitted. “For one thing, a lot of parents lie about their kids’ age on the Isle, for a couple different reasons: either the good parents want their kids to stay in school, so they get into less trouble, or the bad parents want their kids to stay in school so they have somewhere to ship them off to during the day. So, they lie about their twenty-one year old being a seventeen year old, and then we have an opportunity to bring over a good ‘kid,’ get them caught up on their education, and send them out to a better life in Auradon than they would have on the Isle. So, do it before the kids who _should_ be too old, figure out their too old, and lose their chance to come over.

Evie took a deep breath, clearly nervous to say whatever else was on her mind, and Mal gave her friend a worried look, slipping her free hand into Evie’s under the table as the Evil Queen’s daughter continued, “Also, in that same… vein, there are VKs on the Isle, young adults by now – and maybe we can help them, maybe we can’t because they would all be in their twenties – who have one villain parent, and one parent who lives _in Auradon_. Maybe if those parents here _knew_ they were parents, they would be willing to be a safe place for their VK children to land.”

“Evie, I don’t think that’s possible,” King Adam said gently. “I can imagine the villains telling kids their other parent is in Auradon, but I don’t think it’s realistically possible.”

Evie grimaced, and Mal knew she was fighting not to shrink back in her chair as she met the king’s eye and said very quietly, “I can give you names.”

“What kind of names, Evie?” Ben asked, clearly trying to bridge the gap between his friend’s opinion and his dad’s. “Names of villains who make the claims, or names of VKs whose parent is supposedly here?”

“Both.”

“Can you off the top of your head?”

“Anastasia Tremaine and her son, Anthony,” Evie blurted, turning to look at Ben. “There’s a man in Cinderellasburg named David Baker, just an ordinary man – he runs a bakery, ironically, but before Anastasia was transported to the Isle… he was her husband, and according to Dizzy, no one knew she was pregnant when they transported her.”

“We _wouldn’t_ have separated families like that,” King Adam insisted.

Ben met his father’s irritated tone with an equally sharp reminder. “Dad! Just listen to what they have to say.” Taking a calming breath, he asked, “What would it hurt to get DNA samples from all the VKs, run all their DNA? If nothing else, like with Carlos, we can give _them_ an answer, tell them who their parents are. They are still our subjects, and I feel like we can at least do that for them. To Evie’s point, if we get a VK who we can’t find a second DNA match to, let’s pay attention to that, and let’s investigate – just look into – whether or not their other parent might be in Auradon. Okay?”

Adam clearly still wasn’t happy, but he was giving his son the room to make the final decision as king as he asked, “Is that your final say on the matter?”

“For now, yes,” Ben agreed. “Let’s send a team to the Isle, take the swabs, run the tests, and see what happens next. I doubt there will be very many cases of VKs who’s other parent is here, but we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it. For now, Mrs. Radcliffe, was there anything else you wanted to discuss?”

Mrs. Radcliffe made another mark on her list as she consulted it before shaking her head. “No, your majesty.”

“Alright. In that case, if I give you a number that would put you in connection with the Auradon City genetics team, could you collaborate with them to get those swabs taken and ran through our villains DNA database?”

“Certainly.”

“Perfect. I will text that phone number to you this evening once I get it. For now,” he stood, and Mal with him. “Thank you and meeting adjourned.”

Evie, with her hand still in Mal’s as they walked out, whispered to Mal, “Why do I feel like I just opened Pandora’s box?”

Mal shrugged, admitting softly, “Maybe it’s time somebody did.” She smiled encouragingly at her friend, adding, “And I’m really not surprised that it was you.”


	3. Chapter 3

Ben sighed so deeply as he flopped onto her bed that evening that Mal looked up from her drawing to ask, “You okay?”

“Yeah,” he said. “I just texted the number to Mrs. Radcliffe that she needs, and she said she’ll try and get a team out to the Isle by the end of the week, after which we can start running DNA testing.”

“That’s a good thing, right?” Evie asked, looking up from where she was doing her homework at her desk.

“Yeah.”

Mal closed her sketchbook, sat up so that she could lean into her boyfriend as she asked, “But what?”

“But…” Ben seemed to struggle before he admitted, “I’m afraid of what’s going to happen if it turns out that some of the older VKs have parents here.”

“Why?” Evie asked.

“Because then… what if we did the wrong thing in sending their parent to the Isle in the first place? I know it’s a long shot, but what if?”

“You’re right, Ben, it is a long shot,” Mal soothed. “So, don’t borrow trouble.”

“Honestly, though – Evie, you mentioned David Baker earlier today?”

“Yeah?” Evie agreed curiously.

Mal asked, “What about him?”

“I know the name already. He submits bi-annual appeals to have Anastasia brought back over from the Isle.”

“Even after all this time?” Mal asked in surprise.

Ben nodded. “He knows exactly how long it takes for an appeal to go through the system by now, and as soon as one is through, he submits another.”

“Has anyone ever given the appeal serious thought?” Evie asked, seeming upset by the idea.

Ben shook his head, looking no happier than her. “Not in my dad’s reign, no, and by now… I’ve been given to understand that it’s too late, in a way.”

“ _How_ ,” Evie asked sharply. “Could it possibly be too late to overturn the conviction of a wrongly convicted woman?”

Ben winced. “Because now she has kids that definitely don’t belong to Mr. Baker, and what are we supposed to do with them? And before you say, ‘bring them over too,’ I know; I understand that should be the current thought process, but it hasn’t been in the past, and that just… makes things especially difficult. It’s one thing to turn public opinion on its ear when I bring over VKs who have themselves done nothing wrong in the eyes of my subjects; it is something else entirely to bring back a villain who was banished on valid charges.”

“Except, the way Dizzy tells the story,” Evie pointed out. “Queen Ella and Anastasia reached a truce for themselves.”

“And I can do what I can to look into that,” Ben said carefully. “But I cannot – I absolutely cannot – make promises about bringing villains back over to Auradon. And that’s why I’m worried about what happens if we try to… loosen the restrictions on how we plan to even bring VKs back over. If we find out that some of the VKs have parents from Auradon, are they automatically supposed to be brought back to their parents? I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

“I don’t either,” Mal agreed. “The VKs we’re talking about are old enough that they’ve potentially done truly criminal things themselves and need to stay on the Isle for that reason. I feel like there should be other ways for kids to be chosen to come over, though, especially after our conversation this morning. Maybe… some sort of hybrid of what Mr. Baker does and what we’re already planning to do in bringing over more VKs?”

“What do you mean ‘hybrid?’” Ben asked.

“Well, apparently we already have a way for people to petition to… exonerate – is that the word? – villains—”

“Actually, we don’t,” Ben said with an only-partially internal cringe. “He just kind of does his own thing and does it himself; the petition – the actual request – just gets tossed into the shuffle with all the other petitions, and a royal clerk eventually sorts it out for perusal.”

“Okay,” Mal kept going, armed with that information. “Well then, I guess the first thing we need to do is set up a way for people to petition the ILD directly – so things are less likely to get ‘tossed into the shuffle’ – for the release of their children to Auradon, and into their custody.”

“Do you think Carlos could build us a website?” Evie asked suddenly. “I mean, I know it wouldn’t be helpful to Camelot, or parts of Sherwood Forest where the wifi’s still spotty, but for the most part, wouldn’t a website be helpful? We could put information about what we’re trying to accomplish, some sort of… of testimonial about what the Isle’s really like for the innocent kids on it, and a… it’s called a PDF, right? With that form you want to make, Mal, where people could print it off, fill it out, and email it back to us, directly to an email that would could set up _very_ easily for the ILD.”

“That’s a great idea, E!” Mal enthused.

“Alright.” Ben held up his hands. “Hypothetically, let’s say we do both of those things: set up a website, put the form on it. Now, hypothetically, someone sends the ILD a petition requesting the release of… I don’t know, Mad Maddy. What are we going to do with that petition?”

“We’re going to consider it,” Evie said firmly. “Like you said, with no promises, but every VK deserves to be considered.”

“I think,” Mal said hesitantly, pretty sure that Ben wasn’t going to be very fond of what she had to say. “That if we knew that _even Maddy_ had a place to come to in Auradon, to someone who would help her…”

Evie chimed in where Mal faltered, “—Help her overcome her past on the Isle and see the truth about being good—”

“Right.” Mal nodded before continuing, “I think we have a responsibility to investigate in a different way, then. I think if someone wants to give a particular VK a better life, we need to assume the answer should be ‘yes, okay, let’s give a better life to a citizen of Auradon’ – which the VKs _are_ – but we would need to be smart, and investigate their activity on the Isle. If there’s something really criminal, then the answer has to become ‘no,’ and that VK has to be sentenced to the Isle in their own right. Does that make sense?”

Evie nodded, but Ben shook his head, saying, “No. Mal, even you stole things. So did Jay, and you, Evie. If you want to go by criminal activity, no VK would ever leave the Isle.”

“That’s not what I mean,” Mal said. “Theft – especially petty theft of food or clothes or something your father says he wants _or else_ , something you stole to survive – is for _survival_. On the Isle, that sort of thing is necessary, like it or not. What I mean is… I know of VKs who have _murdered_ people, and I don’t want those guys ever coming to Auradon. See the difference?”

Ben froze, shocked at the idea, but he nodded slowly. “Yeah.” And then… “But, really, _murder_? VKs have killed people?”

She nodded solemnly. “ _Some_ VKs are too far gone to come here, Ben, I do believe that, especially when I look at it from the perspective of ‘how do we keep mainland Auradon safe,’ but that’s why it’s even more important to bring over the VKs that _can_ still be saved, that can still turn their lives around, _while_ they still can.”

Mal watched it dawn on her boyfriend that there was a reason she and the other three VKs here were in such a hurry to bring over other VKs. He _got_ it now that this wasn’t just a charitable thing to do… that they might just be trying to save lives. “Okay,” he nodded firmly, already standing as he said, “Let’s go talk to Carlos and get this website set up. It would be best to have it up by the time the DNA results start coming back, don’t you think?”

Mal and Evie stood, too, looping arms with him from either side of him, as Evie declared with a smile, “I do.”

* * *

 _It was funny,_ Mal reflected two days later, _in a way that she understood wasn’t funny at all, how quickly things could get done when the right people wanted them done._ She had talked very recently with Ben and Evie about how long it could take to get petitions through the system Auradon had in place, and yet the same amount of paperwork – albeit of a different sort – granting King Adam and Queen Belle wardship over her had taken exactly two days to get to the point of finalization. Perversely, she wondered if it would take so little time for Carlos’ adoption papers to go through if that’s the route he decided he wanted to take with the Radcliffes.

Evie elbowed her lightly, ordering, “Smile, Mal. You’re becoming a part of _the_ royal family in one more way, right?”

“And you’re getting decent parents,” Carlos added.

Automatically Mal reminded him, “Guardians.”

It wasn’t anything spiteful in her mind, it was just… she wasn’t like Carlos. Her mother had been strange, and horrible on an emotional level, sure, but not really the sort of crazed and physically and mentally abusive that Cruella was to her son. And, yeah, her dad had never really been around, but she _knew_ him, or at least who he was. She still felt like she had to honor them, and the fact that they’d shaped who she was, in some way; so, they were her “parents,” and they always would be.

Adam and Belle could be her guardians, and they could all be fine with that arrangement. Even though the laws concerning becoming a legal adult in Auradon were complex enough that she could declare independence from the guardianship agreement pretty much at any time, she understood what they were trying to do – both politically and emotionally – and she appreciated it.

So, she smiled, and put her name on all the dotted lines – so many of them – alongside King Adam and Queen Belle’s, and when the cameras showed up to publicize the event, as she’d known they would – _that was a little part of the point, anyway_ – Mal smiled some more, and let her new guardians hug her even more than normal. When the news crews spoke to them, they all took every opportunity to talk about the newly formed ILD, the upcoming DNA testing and website, and what they were trying to do through the ILD.

 _It really was a good day,_ Mal decided cheerfully, standing in the middle of a family portrait with the Florians. _And even though these adults weren’t her parents, and she didn’t need or necessarily want them to be in that way, they were good people. They were inviting her, as Evie said, to become an official_ enough _part of their family, and she was perfectly content with it._

**Author's Note:**

> Comments are deeply appreciated!  
> The next story is Evie's!


End file.
